Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Joy's New and Hot, Week 8

Mars Rover Finds Evidence of Water

My article is about the Mars rover and new evidence that Mars might have had water on it. One of the wheels on the rover is broken and turns up a lot of dirt when the rover moves. Some of the churned up dirt has been found to be about 90% silica, a mineral that would have needed water to form. One theory for the silica formation is hot acid vapors from volcanoes interacting with water on the surface and another is hot springs.

Scientists are calling this one of the most exciting discoveries by the rovers, because well, water is "clement for organisms." I think this is pretty neat and just highlights all the possibilities and all that we don't know, especially about other planets. Also, I think it's pretty funny that this silica was discovered by a broken wheel.